Southerners woodland of our own?

[bilko]

Right, first of all this is not oneupmanship or any of that political bull. We are a great community here and I one of the new members but i have been sparked into action here by the passion of others.
I too need a place of my own or to be more precise a place that i can share with likeminded people set on this goal of being able to live our bushcraft where and when we want and NEED!

Look at this:
http://www.woodlands.co.uk/par-brimstone-wood.htm

Ladies and gents10 and a half acres for £39 grand near Ashford. It's an hour and a half from me by motorway for an idea into my commitment. If ten of us could come up with £5 grand each to include legal fees and any remedial work etc etc then i would skip work tommorrow and trot down to the building society to get a 5 grand loan!

I have NO legal experience and sometimes forget how to spell 'AND' but I / WE need this.

This might not be THE one but let this thread be a remedial indication as to how much we are willing to spend, cos that's what it boils down to on the face of it.
I think 30+ members could quite comfortably use an area like this.

God, someone get me a brandy....Quick!
I am litterally shivering with anticipation and excitement at the whole own our woods prospect. And to our brothers and sisters, fellows, FRIENDS in the North and the centre and the globe; YES!. Let us create a network a place to stay to hang ones bergen and brew up for all will be welcome.

Sits and waits till about midnight when i'm off to bed.

 

[Razorstrop]

Go on Bilko
Make it happen

:You_Rock_
Mr Strop

 

[Bardster]

I'm Interested! I coult find £5000 I think. As people have said there are cheaper sellers than
woodlands for sale - And having worked in pluckley last week its very close to the Channel tunnel rail link so will have lots of train noise - and i do mean lots. Nice area tho. But with the developement of Ashford because of the international station its growing fast and might be nicer to get something further away.

 

[bilko]

Thanks mate!
Don't forget peeps, for the price of a years supply of cancer sticks ( yes i smoke too ) you could have a £1500 share in a wood of your own!.
What are you doing next Friday? "oh i finish work around 3:30 then i get to the wood for 5,6 ish and spend the weekend there with my mates"
"yep, iv'e got a new tarp that charlie is gonna help me to set up and we'll be cooking burgers over a fire. Why? what are you doing?"
"oh, watching tele, going to tescos, you know, the usual"

I don't want to throw around too many figures as but the cigarettes one was just to put things into perspective...£4.11 x 365 = £1500 or a pack a day. Convert to rollups and you'd save £750

I did a test once which showed that i am not a leader, infact i lead best from behind ( stop it, i mean right hand man ) anyway what i'm saying is this will be a joint effort.
Right, time for that brandy i think.

 

[bilko]

I'm Interested! I coult find £5000 I think. As people have said there are cheaper sellers than
woodlands for sale - And having worked in pluckley last week its very close to the Channel tunnel rail link so will have lots of train noise - and i do mean lots. Nice area tho. But with the developement of Ashford because of the international station its growing fast and might be nicer to get something further away.

Great!
Forget the figures for now mate. It was just when i weighed up my want to my need that's the figure i came up with
£500 each is 78 members who won't all be wanting to use it at the same time anyway. And like i said this may not be THE ONE i just wanted to show how doable it actually is. Legal fees alone could be as little as £400 i read somewhere. After that i think were home dry

 

[Emberglow]

Go for it Bilko and best of luck.. hope I get an invite :You_Rock_

 

[rich59]

Bilko

My family are interested in the idea of owning a wood. Shame there isn't much woodland in SE London to buy!

Kent or Sussex would be good. Haven't talked with the family recently on the subject but prob. still keen.

How about a SE London pub meet to discuss ideas?

 

[Wannabe]

Count me in chaps ! and I think a pub meet for anyone that's interested is a great idea.

 

[bambodoggy]

Bilko....aren't you off to Canada shortly? Why saddle yourself with a £5k debt if you won't be abuot to use it?

I like the idea of buying a woods but I have soooooo much of it open to me round here that for me there really isn't any point.

Good luck wih it the rest of you though

Bam.

 

[Platypus]

Great idea, I would be interested if the right woods could be found, especially if it was in a central southern location.

 

[jdlenton]

I'm interesrted in this project a meet to talk about it would be a good idea

James

 

[greensurfingbear]

I think the idea is great a whole network of woodlands owned and run by bushcraft fans

Lots of regular camp site across the country frown at the idea of having fires in them so maybe this is the next logical step.

Woods for woodsmen/women

:You_Rock_

 

[MarkB]

I am interested in being involved in a communal buy of a woodland in the South of UK if the people involved are likely to be looking at keeping it purely for bushcraft or like purposes and not turning it into a paintball pit or using it to make money out of people by chopping it up.

somethings I would mention though given I can see everyone here is very much flying on the idea of it rather than prepared for the reality of it:

I noticed no one has yet mentioned that every footprint is going to effect the natural environment of the wood in some way and unless you leave an area a good 5 weeks before visiting it again then it pretty soon is going to end up humanised, litered, trampled, chopped up, set fire to and the animals will bugger off etc..... So you need a large wood and a pretty strict control of the users of said wood which needs to be made in legal contractual form from the off by a solicitor for a cost.

another thing...I am somewhat used to organising groups of people, I do it for a hobby/job with music festivals and the like and believe me you dont want more than 1 or 2 people at the most in charge of anything. Firstly you will never get 10 people to agree on the same set of rules and if you do it will take at least 10 meetings which not all will be able to attend thus no decisions will be able to be made.

I think group buying and community ideas area great in theory but really need to be totally clarified, well thought out, and you need to ensure that you are able to make important decisional changes quickly in order to adapt to situations very easily, that means few chiefs and plenty indians.

It wont be easy and it will be hard work for someone who will eventually get peed off that they are doing all the organising for nothing. This will happen. people love to disagree verbally and hate to do anything that cuts into their time or requires effort, its human nature, even those with the best intentions will let others down.

there is a chance wood land bought amongst a large number of people will get abused easily and become a mess of chopped down and meddled-with nature. and then there is the risk of getting caught in a legal struggle between differing parties opinions who will both feel strongly they are right about something and both have money invested in it. then you have a land war which will never end. look at every country in the world.

its a big leap but if some ground rules can be set up from the start and some very strict rules are set about usage and visitation times and rights and everyone buys into that ready made and knowing already what they are getting into then it might work but If you get 70 people together in a pub and suggest they all come up with the rules then forget about it, trust me I tried something like it and ended up sacking everyone and running the plan myself in order for it to work.

anyway thats just some of the difficult elements. not the negatives, the negatives are far worse. haha.

but having said that if anyone out there is serious about buying some woods in UK and discussing exactly the way in which it will be used by the owners I am interested though I cant afford much at this moment I would be happy to be involved in the set up and I have a certain amount of organisational ability and plenty of experience of large numbers of people attempting to make something happen and failing dismally and then there were even a couple of times we succeeded god knows how, some small miracle maybe.

MarkB

 

[bambodoggy]

Some very good points there Mark, as you say it's easy to get carried away with an idea without realising just how diffcult it's going to be.

Other things that could go wrong could be hunting and trapping...would the group have the hunting (and any possible fishing) rights? If so is the group happy to have hunting and trapping on the land... will some see this as natural bushcraft while others see it as barbaric and unacceptable?

That's just one thing...there will be many.

So far I haven't added much to this thread as I just can't see this working out, I'm ever so sorry to sound so gloomy about it and I truely wish you all the best with it but I just don't see it happening.

Hope you can all prove me wrong

Bam.

 

[M@rk]

We’re interested in getting involved . A couple of hundred pounds put into something is one thing five grand is another, we would have to be very happy with the whole thing but we are interested.

 

[MarkB]

hmmm can it work out?

I rekon it can, in fact you have thrown down the guantlet for me at this point because I am interested by just how complicated it actually would be to get right.
I am convinced it can be done right or rather, a template can be devised to follow that would make buying land as a community of strangers easier to navigate through safely.

come on...this is like a pioneering adventure! Man has reached the moon, he has walked the Nile, he has delved into the deepest darkest regions of the entire world and you are telling me a few level headed guys cant get it together to bung a few thousand quid into a pot and buy a spot of land then do something good with it that they all can enjoy!!!!

the only question is can it be done without a few major hiccups and upsets along the way first time. thats the only question.

I applaud anyone willing to give it a go and I wish to add my cheer and a shout of BRAVO! to anyone here who has the balls to push forward with the idea and continue in the face of all setbacks and negativity. because it obviously can be done since the legal situation and the money is in place to acheive it. all it needs is the people to agree.

it might be better to look at ways to buy the land, set up some strict rules, then sell it out as shares and offer access only to those people who buy shares but give access for free or something. spread the cost, limit the useage and maintain strict rules so nothing gets ruined and the place sustains itself.

what I have found with trying to get large groups of people to do anythign is that it works best if you actually dont give them many choices but just say - here is how it is, here is the deal, just sign and you have this. people dont have to think too much then and provided it is honest and in everyones interests then they will back you 100%. if they happen to offer up a better idea in the process then that gets used of course.

who here is actually working on trying to achieve this at the moment can they email me PM I would really like a chat through their progress to see if I can help out with making it work out?

MB

 

[wolf]

Bilko....aren't you off to Canada shortly? Why saddle yourself with a £5k debt if you won't be abuot to use it?

I like the idea of buying a woods but I have soooooo much of it open to me round here that for me there really isn't any point.

Good luck wih it the rest of you though

Bam.

hiya mate...living in surrey myself,can you suggest a good woodland near croydon area,a woodland that perhaps you could stay overnight etc?

 

[bilko]

Mark B,
I knew a leader would emerge and someone with your experience is a great advantage. I have deliberately left this thread to see exactly what sort of reactions or interest people had in the project. Although there have been a few excited peeps you are the first to offer real clarity.
I spoke to someone at John Clegg and co woodland specialists this afternoon. The guy seemed to think that the best time for marketing woodlands was around May when they are looking their best. As i sit here now in a fleece and 2 coats ( i point blank refuse to turn the heating on ) i can see why there are very few for sale at the moment.
Anyway i reckon the biggest bargains to be had will not come from mainstream sites but looking at OS maps of highly forested areas and contacting landowners.
or something similar.

A few things i didn't realise. When paying for a wood it is partially valued on the value of the trees.
It is important to get 3rd party insurance against personal accident and damadge.
You pay per acre with the larger woods so you get more for your money.

Straight away i have realised that a 10/15 acre site won't be big enough and were probably looking at a minimum of 30 acres. Especially after watching people come running from everywhere now the foundations are being dug on the northern wood thread. No bad thing btw, just remind me of the words " I think were gonna need a bigger boat"
I will try and correlate some thoughts to see what you think.
Any tree surgeons out there???

 

[bilko]

hiya mate...living in surrey myself,can you suggest a good woodland near croydon area,a woodland that perhaps you could stay overnight etc?

Hi wolf. Erm i thought you had a secret spot?
Seriously though i don't get out to croydon way much . My favourite wood at the mo is Mereworth just south of junction 3 on the M20 and even i have to drive for an hour to get there.

 

[bambodoggy]

hiya mate...living in surrey myself,can you suggest a good woodland near croydon area,a woodland that perhaps you could stay overnight etc?

Sorry dude... can't tell you where I go, if I did on a public forum I'd never be alone up there. I live in North West Surrey and am surrounded by MoD land which I use for bushcrafting during the daytime and I also have a permit to collect fire wood from there for my heating at home. Right in the middle of the MoD land and just next to where I live is a small 150 acre wood owned by a local charity, as a "commoner" I have the right to collect fire wood there too, as a tree surgeon I help out with the odd bit of felling, lopping and pruning for them free of charge and in return I am allowed to camp and have fires....this courtesy would not be extended to anyone else I'm affraid so there's little point in me telling you where it is
I'm affraid I don't know east Surrey and the Croydon area all that well so I can't suggest anything to you....sorry

Any tree surgeons out there???

Yes Mate, what can I do for you?

Bam.